AVLF executive director Marty Ellin. (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

In an unprecedented gesture, an anonymous local businessman last year offered the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation a $500,000 gift to establish an endowment fund for emergencies–but only if the group could raise the same in matching funds by Sept. 30.

AVLF has succeeded, its executive director Marty Ellin announced in a letter to supporters on Monday. Donations surpassed $500,000 just last week.

"Our anonymous donor and all of the contributors to the SAFE fund have done nothing less than re-make the future of our work," Ellin said in the letter.

AVLF is Atlanta's largest provider of pro bono legal services. The firm's staff attorneys and volunteer lawyers from the private bar provide legal representation to low-income Atlantans who can't afford a lawyer but don't qualify for assistance from the Atlanta Legal Aid Society.

The new $1 million SAFE Fund, short for Stabilizing Atlanta For Everyone, gives AVLF a reserve cushion for the first time in its 40-year history. That is a significant sum for the group, which has a $3.75 million annual budget.

After AVLF announced the $500,000 challenge grant, Troutman Sanders was the first law firm to step up, pledging $50,000 to kick-start the matching gift campaign.

Since then, the group has received 200 donations from family foundations, corporations, law firms and individuals—including gifts from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Blank Family Foundation, Gia Partain and Paul Murphy, and the Glenn Family Foundation.

AVLF serves survivors of intimate partner abuse, tenants in disputes with landlords, employees denied wages and children in high-conflict custody disputes. It offers wrap-around services through programs like its Safe Families Office, for those experiencing domestic violence, and Standing With Our Neighbors, which helps low-income students and their families with housing problems that affect their school performance.

AVLF's largest funding sources are grants for specific programs, which make up about 60% of its budget, and its annual campaign, which provides another 30% toward its operating revenue.

The mystery donor told the Daily Report last year that AVLF needed the $1 million "rainy day" reserve fund to backstop the funds it must raise each year for programs and operations.

"Every year they start over [with fundraising]—but whether it's a good year or a bad year, they have these programs in place to support," he added. "They need a rainy day fund that allows them, whatever the cycle is, to have a long-range plan."